A Grounding at Mourilyan Harbour

Finally the wind and swell settled enough to set off from Dunk Island to Cairns.


Able Sea Monkey found this plate sized starfish on our last day at Dunk.

This is a 70 nautical mile stretch so rather than attempt in it a single day we headed for Mourilyan Harbour south of Innisfail.

 

This snug little harbour is home to a bulk sugar loading facility . . . and that's about it. In fact the harbour is so narrow that only one carrier can come in at a time and there is a marked turning circle where the ship is swung around by tugs so it can get out again. The turning area is dredged, but beyond this shoals rapidly to mud flats.

Supersize Me in Mourilyan Harbour

We were well aware of all this as we entered the harbour and carefully skirted around checking the depths on the sounder until we found just the right position to drop the anchor so that we swung just between two of the turning circle markers but far enough away from the shallows. We settled back for a relaxing afternoon, congratulating ourselves on how skilfully we had struck the perfect balance between being taken out by a bulk sugar carrier in the wee hours or sitting on our side in the mudflats getting friendly with the local crocodiles.

The First Mate has visions of ending up just like The Love Boat

Of course at this point the wind dropped, the tide came racing through the narrow harbour entrance and carried us straight up onto the mudflat. Schoolwork was halted as the crew were ordered into their lifejackets and sent below to batten the hatches and secure loose items.  As the Captain and First Mate seemed obviously distracted and school seemed to be out for the day, the crew then made the most of the opportunity, chillaxing on deck in their lifejackets reading, completely unconcerned.

"If not for the courage of the fearless crew, The Minnow would be lost . . ."

Meanwhile the crew's white faced parents scrambled for options as Arjuna started to tilt. To kedge or not to kedge was the question. We already had our main anchor out and the tide was rising. But it requires steely nerves to sit tight while you contemplate the possibilities. The First Mate made a mental note to stock up on Campbell's Fully Loaded Soup if we ever made it to Cairns.

 

Fortunately after a few more minutes of rising tide the boat started to bob around intermittently. The tidal current was still pushing us further up the mud bank but with some judicious manoeuvring with the engine and carefully winching in just a couple of metres of anchor chain at a time we managed to pull ourselves out to deeper water.

 

Meantime we had discovered  the extremely useful (for times like this) Qships website https://qships.tmr.qld.gov.au/webx/ which gives planned vessel movements for all the major ports. The turning circle wasn't due to be used for another couple of days. So we anchored slightly inside the turning circle buoys, and spent a peaceful night watching the enormous Windsor Adventure being loaded up under a spectacular August super moon with the scent of sugar wafting over us.  

Mt Bartle Frere with its head in the clouds.

On Tuesday 10th August we set off early for Cairns, thumbing our noses at the Mourilyan crocodiles as we departed. We motor sailed to Cairns past Mt Bartle Frere, Queensland's loftiest peak, rising mysteriously into the clouds out of the impressive Bellenden Ker range.

Arrival at Cairns Marlin Marina